How has the recession affected your team?

[techsupport07]

BJT is right...North Dakota has decided to stay out of the recession. We are doing just fine...sure is nice for our state to have over $1 billion surplus!

[falconmaster]

Almost killed us this year, it might do it next year. Maybe FIRST can lower the price by not requiring teams to buy a new control system next year and drop the price 2k?

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by falconmaster

Almost killed us this year, it might do it next year. Maybe FIRST can lower the price by not requiring teams to buy a new control system next year and drop the price 2k?

That would sure be nice!

[aznkazoon]

Like what happened to us is that people said that they would sponser us,but later on said they can't.

[Salbert]

We lost our biggest sponsor and almost lost our 2nd biggest sponsor, but MARS is going to come out a lot stronger, and hopefully with more little sponsors.

[Rick TYler]

At the end of 2008, FIRST was holding more than $14 million in cash and cash equivalent quick assets. This was an increase of about $4.5 million from 2007. Perhaps they could spend down $5 million in each of the next two years to reduce costs to FRC, FTC and FLL teams. In 2008, FIRST collected more than $14.4 million in program registration fees. If they had spent down their cash by $5 million, they could cut registration fees by a third. That would help everyone, and not wipe out FIRST's cash reserves. This can't go on forever, however, since corporate giving to FIRST will inevitably decline at the same time giving drops to the teams.

This won't even touch the insane amount of money local organizing committees need to raise to fund FRC tournaments. With many of our major tournament sponsors losing money and laying off employees, it seems clear (to me, anyway) that either FIRST needs to start diverting team registration fees to the tournaments, or they are going to lose a lot of FRC events.

I predict big growth in the Vex Robotics Competition and FTC next year as former FRC teams look for cost-effective ways to offer STEM programs for high school students. My Vex program costs us $150 per student, per year, and FTC costs us about $250. When I did FRC, we spent $500 per student -- and we were a "budget" team. The "high end" FRC teams spend $1,000 per student and more. The medium-sized robot programs are where the growth is going to be for the next two years at least.

I'm not suggesting that we all stop raising money for our teams and events. Far from it. Even though our club does "little robots" instead of FRC, we still need to raise about $6,000 (we have 45 students) for next year -- so we are looking at the same issues as everyone else. Risk management is a normal business practice that includes planning for bad scenarios as well as good ones. Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together.

[Kims Robot]

The most notable is two of our student's mom's have lost their jobs, and Harris is asking us to "tighten our belts".

Oddly enough, though, our Patron drive is going as normal if not better. We have more large sponsors ($200+) on the back of our TShirts than ever. Several of the smaller companies are giving less ($50 down to $25 or the like), but we are finding to our suprise that most businesses are still willing to contribute at helpful levels. Im not sure if its the writeoff aspect or how they work it, but our patron contributions havent really decreased. This year so far we have raised close to $9,000, and have about 60 patrons.

Although, as seen with Harris asking us to tighten up, I know a lot of major sponsors are really aiming to decrease their spending whereever they can, and unfortunately that means reduced large sponsorships. But I think as seen by our patron drive, so far, money is still out there, you might just have to work a little harder for it.

[Ryan Caldwell]

The main thing we did was dictate to the design team robot construction costs were limited to $1000 not the $3500 the rules impose.

The other was decide no practice robot and everyone must share the team screwdriver.

as a rookie team this year 2851 is looking to find new revenues, companies seem reluctant, we have invited all the companies we talk to whether they sponsor us or not to be our guests (get the VIP treatment) at the competition. We hope that those whom show up get the hooks into them and they will help out in years to come.

Its ongoing fund raising here as of current we will not be able to attend nationals if we qualify.

Can't thank BAE Systems enough for stepping up and investing enough for our team to get started.

[ICntIHaveRbtics]

Its hard to really gauge, because last year we weren't as proactive, but this year, we've been getting more money than ever. Usually we struggle to have enough money to pay off regional debt at this time, and now we've paid off our debt for regionals, nationals (for the first time ever), and then some thanks to some awesome sponsors =D

I don't know if the new companies we approached would have given us more in the past, but it seems like everyone around here is still willing to give something. I think its all in how you approach a place. I mean, if you lay the facts out there that their money is more of an investment than a mere donation, I think it changes the perspective.

[SCROSSLEY-GCEC]

Living in New Zealand, the exchange rates to buy VEX parts are beast. FRC parts if we need to order them in will be much, much worse

[spc295]

we have not yet been affected, but its coming

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

At the end of 2008, FIRST was holding more than $14 million in cash and cash equivalent quick assets. This was an increase of about $4.5 million from 2007. Perhaps they could spend down $5 million in each of the next two years to reduce costs to FRC, FTC and FLL teams. In 2008, FIRST collected more than $14.4 million in program registration fees. If they had spent down their cash by $5 million, they could cut registration fees by a third. That would help everyone, and not wipe out FIRST's cash reserves. This can't go on forever, however, since corporate giving to FIRST will inevitably decline at the same time giving drops to the teams.

This is very interesting.
However, I dont forsee FIRST dropping registration fees. If their goal is to continually expand reaching more teams in more countries, then those cash reserves might be essential.
I agree that maybe registration fees should come down somewhat, as teams are strapped to doing more with less resources. This is why I believe that entrepreneurship award should be celebrated much much more than it has in the past.
Everyone talks about sustainability, but are they actively trying to improve their situations? Or are they counting on others in an all or nothing sponsorship?

[RoboMom]

I am also seeing the economy affecting the recruitment of volunteers for events, particularly the regionals, and for mentors. These mentors, some working for large corporations, are also watching their savings disappear and are having to re-think how they spend their time.

It is evident to me that the way things have been done in the past need to be realigned.

[katyrobo2177]

This year we lost a huge sponsership from an anonymous donor through our school. So to make up for it, we have been sending out sponsership letters like crazy to every compant possible it seems such as red bull, the north face...trust me we're trying everywhere so our team doesn't die which would be veryyy tragic

[ZakuAce]

My team has gotten very lucky. Our big name sponsors (EX: GE, Generac, Rockwell Automation) have stuck with us, and we are very greatful for their help. But we have been hard pressed to find smaller sponsors. We were also lucky that we saved $3000 from last year. Without that money, there is no way we could have ever hoped to go to a second regional, much less Hawaii. We're being more conservative in spending team funds, encouraging more parents to bring lunch on Saturdays rather than spend money on take out pizza. Admittedly, we are in a pretty rich area, and I feel for teams that are more financially pressed than we are.